There’s little to know so far about Lutalo Jones. The multi-instrumentalist and producer from Minnesota is a cousin by marriage to Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker, and Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes is a fan. With their debut EP, Once Now, Then Again, Lutalo wants to address how today’s world is undermining the future a generation was promised. “They like to say they want change,” they sing on For Now, a song about the predicament faced by Black and Indigenous groups in the US, and yet: “The more that I speak, they stay the same.”
In their own life, this somewhat mysterious musician is forging an alternative way of being, having moved to Vermont with their partner in the hope of creating a more sustainable kind of community. This special EP extends an alluring welcome, crackling like a carefully tended fire. Lutalo’s sound is eminently comforting: acoustic guitar densely layered and enveloping, bobbing alongside subtle electronic touches, amiably puttering percussion and doleful vocals intimate enough to ruffle the finest ear hairs.
